Mother Nature found a new way to damage my haunt... RACOONS! YAY!

2986 Views 24 Replies 16 Participants Last post by Rob_Raz, Oct 23, 2014

osenator

Discussion Starter · Oct 22, 2014

My wife counted 8 racoons last night, playing in our haunt last night, all at once. They broke many of the Corn Stakls (they had dried corn in them) that we didn't had time to secure to the fences.

I don't really mind, as a huge animal lover, can't blame them.

But the funny part, every plastic pumkins in the haunt, were all moved around and upsidde down (L).

I guess they had lots of fun.

Nothing that can't be fixed in 5 seconds, but still funny.

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1 - 20 of 25 Posts

StanFam3

· #2 · Oct 22, 2014

LOLOL I love the image of them rolling around the pumpkins looking in them and such!

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Hilda

· #3 · Oct 22, 2014

That is not funny about damage of any sort... but it is kinda funny imagining how confused they were by plastic pumpkins. LOL

Reactions: 1

Dulcet Jones

· #4 · Oct 22, 2014

I awoke one night to the sound of several racoons fighting in the yard. My daughters dollar store laser pointer was sitting on the sill so I turned it on and pointed it out toward the sound and slowly moved it across the yard. All the racoons froze, then quietly slunk away. So the solution is simple, sit up all night with a laser pointer!?!

Reactions: 2

J-Man

· #5 · Oct 22, 2014

Yeah, raccoons are cute until they start digging up your lawn like a sod cutter or worse yet, trying to chew into your roof. Once they find a food source, you can bet they'll be back every night. I'm an animal lover too but love turns to hate really fast when they're not "cute" anymore.

osenator

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 22, 2014

2

Mammal Vertebrate Procyonidae Procyon Canidae

Vertebrate Mammal Procyon Procyonidae Carnivore

I can't deny it... I simply love them...

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Blarghity

· #7 · Oct 22, 2014

Did you know the only reason why racoons are not domesticated as pets (and in many areas it is outright illegal to keep them) is because they are too readily susceptible to catching rabies?

oaklawn Crematory

· #8 · Oct 22, 2014

Blarghity said:
Did you know the only reason why racoons are not domesticated as pets (and in many areas it is outright illegal to keep them) is because they are too readily susceptible to catching rabies?

But they are delicious......

Make sure you feed them corn and apples......

annamarykahn

· #9 · Oct 22, 2014

oaklawn Crematory said:
But they are delicious......

Make sure you feed them corn and apples......

and u can make gr8 hats out of them after the feast!

yeah, they are cute ... but can be pests

amk

zombieprincess

· #10 · Oct 22, 2014

I can just picture them rolling around with the plastic pumpkins!

Reactions: 1

WitchyKitty

· #11 · Oct 22, 2014

I love raccoons. My family, growing up, used to feed all the neighborhood raccoons every night for years and years. Not only did we love having them around to watch...but keeping them fed and occupied kept them out of all the neighborhood garbage cans. (Don't worry, we also made sure to not try to make them too docile or friendly with humans, of course...they weren't pets.) Well, except for one...we raised one who, as a baby, was brought to us nearly drown and was abandoned. His name was Rascal. I miss him, he was awesome. We took care of him, helped him grow up strong and then slowly rehabilitated him to living outdoors and being a normal raccoon, lol. That was super fun (sarcasm), he didn't want to live outside, lol. I remember when we first started trying, he kept trying to get back in the house when I opened the back door. I decided I would run as fast as I could to the front door and beat him inside. Well, he was faster, ran under my legs, across the front room and into my aunts bedroom (she was his main care giver). I walked into the room and searched all over for him. I just couldn't find him. So, I stopped, stood still and just watched. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the tiniest of movements...I turn to look, and the little brat was hiding in a pile of stuffed animals!!!! I am dead serious. Just his little face was peeking out from the pile, lol. I would have never seen him if he hadn't moved that tiny bit. Those little monsters are way too smart for their own good, lol. It was hilarious and I will never forget that day. I have many stories about him, I could type all day. He slowly started to wander as he got older, being gone for longer lengths of time each trip, when one day he just didn't come back home. We were worried for awhile, hoping he was okay and just doing his raccoon thing...when one day, a momma raccoon brought her babies up to the house (...they did this often, as they felt is was a safe place to get some food when they had their little ones in tow.) She was a light gray raccoon, just like every other raccoon in our area had ever been...but every one of her babies were super dark colored with charcoals and blacks. Rascal, being a rescued raccoon from a different area, had been the exact same colors!! We all liked to think these were his babies. <3

Lol, okay, I'll stop gong on about my raccoon stories now...but the moral of the story is, is that they are very smart and very mischievous. They can definitely get into some trouble, no matter how cute they are. I love them, and would never hurt them (or any animal), but they can be tiny, furry pains in the rear sometimes, lol. We could never have cornstalks out in the yard that still had corn on them...the corn had to be removed and the stalks tied up securely. The pumpkins couldn't be out at night, either, or they'd eat them. My mom always had to keep them inside until it was time to carve and light them. Oh, and I'll bet they loved your pumpkin pails...they LOVE toys! They love to play with things and inspect them fully...very curious little things. We would watch them play with the dogs toys outside in the yard, lol.
Ahhh, I am sorry they got into your decorations and were naughty little raccoons. That's definitely no fun.

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oaklawn Crematory

· #12 · Oct 22, 2014

WitchyKitty said:
I love raccoons. My family, growing up, used to feed all the neighborhood raccoons every night for years and years. Not only did we love having them around to watch...but keeping them fed and occupied kept them out of all the neighborhood garbage cans. (Don't worry, we also made sure to not try to make them too docile or friendly with humans, of course...they weren't pets.) Well, except for one...we raised one who, as a baby, was brought to us nearly drown and was abandoned. His name was Rascal. I miss him, he was awesome. We took care of him, helped him grow up strong and then slowly rehabilitated him to living outdoors and being a normal raccoon, lol. That was super fun (sarcasm), he didn't want to live outside, lol. I remember when we first started trying, he kept trying to get back in the house when I opened the back door. I decided I would run as fast as I could to the front door and beat him inside. Well, he was faster, ran under my legs, across the front room and into my aunts bedroom (she was his main care giver). I walked into the room and searched all over for him. I just couldn't find him. So, I stopped, stood still and just watched. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the tiniest of movements...I turn to look, and the little brat was hiding in a pile of stuffed animals!!!! I am dead serious. Just his little face was peeking out from the pile, lol. I would have never seen him if he hadn't moved that tiny bit. Those little monsters are way too smart for their own good, lol. It was hilarious and I will never forget that day. I have many stories about him, I could type all day. He slowly started to wander as he got older, being gone for longer lengths of time each trip, when one day he just didn't come back home. We were worried for awhile, hoping he was okay and just doing his raccoon thing...when one day, a momma raccoon brought her babies up to the house (...they did this often, as they felt is was a safe place to get some food when they had their little ones in tow.) She was a light gray raccoon, just like every other raccoon in our area had ever been...but every one of her babies were super dark colored with charcoals and blacks. Rascal, being a rescued raccoon from a different area, had been the exact same colors!! We all liked to think these were his babies. <3

Lol, okay, I'll stop gong on about my raccoon stories now...but the moral of the story is, is that they are very smart and very mischievous. They can definitely get into some trouble, no matter how cute they are. I love them, and would never hurt them (or any animal), but they can be tiny, furry pains in the rear sometimes, lol. We could never have cornstalks out in the yard that still had corn on them...the corn had to be removed and the stalks tied up securely. The pumpkins couldn't be out at night, either, or they'd eat them. My mom always had to keep them inside until it was time to carve and light them. Oh, and I'll bet they loved your pumpkin pails...they LOVE toys! They love to play with things and inspect them fully...very curious little things. We would watch them play with the dogs toys outside in the yard, lol.
Ahhh, I am sorry they got into your decorations and were naughty little raccoons. That's definitely no fun.

Oh I totally agree with you witchy kitty......

Raccoons are cute & tasty......Deep fried or baked....You can't go wrong with ****. Like AMK said, they make wonderful hats and even coats. Nothing is more sexy than a good looking gal wearing nothing but a **** skin jacket......ah...and a steak .....and a bottle of wine.....oh yeah forgot the pie...that too.

kittyvibe

· #13 · Oct 22, 2014

I recently watched a documentary on raccoons and it was pretty interesting how far they go in search of food. They are the one animal who is thriving better in the city limits than their country cousins. There was an anime in the 70s that made people in China go gaga and gave them the bright idea of having racoons as pets, lol. T

hey were cute when little but when they got older the raccoon couldn't be domesticated and would be aggressive to the owners. So at the end of the anime, the kid who had the raccoon had let it go in the forest to be free forever. So that gave the Chinese owners the idea to free their naughty raccoons into the surrounding forests. But being that raccoons were imported to China, there weren't any natural enemies to them and even today the people are having very difficult times removing them. They used to relocate but it was too much and they have now just put them to death when caught.

The biggest problem is that the racoons are destroying the ancient wooden shrines at an incredible rate, not to mention damage to people homes elsewhere. Its on Netflix if anyone cares to watch it, called "Raccoon Nation".

The one thing I really am impressed with and took away from the whole documentary is that raccoons are smarter than you think and adapt very quickly. They can collapse their bones to wedge and get through small holes or under your garage door, in alot of ways they are like little spider mans coming at ya from roof lines and climbing up stuff that would seem impossible.

We want to convert out porch to a cat haven but ever since watching the documentary, its clear we have to go a bit farther in safekeeping or pets since Iknow racoons love catfood and will do just about anything to get at it. I have a deaf extremely friendly cat that I know would go up to one of these if at her food bowl and maybe not get the memo to stay away and she could be hurt. So keeping them safe in their outdoor patio is challenging my brain for now.

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Pumpkinprincess

· #14 · Oct 22, 2014

One if my childhood friends had a pet racoon. She used it as part of her Science Fair project. The raccoon freaked out and started biting people at the Science Fair. They had to put it down afterwards.

WitchyKitty

· #15 · Oct 22, 2014

Never mind this post, delete please.

Ghost of Spookie

· #16 · Oct 22, 2014

I love watching nature specials and such and I think racoons are super cute and little acrobats (and thieves too!) but like any wild animal (including feral cats, cute bear cubs, playful squirrels) shouldn't be fed by people. They can carry diseases inluding rabies and if you get scratched or bit, you can probably forget trapping the animal to see if it has rabies cause it's smarter than that, so plan on a series of painful shots. Encouraging them by feeding them to keep them around is not smart and potentially is putting your neighborhood kids and pets in danger should the racoon develop rabies. Nothing like watching a kid or baby have to undergo shots for this. Even worse situation if a scratch or bite isn't brought to an astute adult's attention who knows enough to seek treatment for it. And heaven help you if they find a way into your house. Very destructive creatures really. I can see where they could play real havoc with a halloween display.

Oh and thanks to Stephen King I will never forget the sight of a Saint Bernard dog with rabies. Now there was one scene in that movie that had me jumping out of my seat when the rabid dog first attacked. Sticking to halloween scares in your neighborhood is much safer.

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WitchyKitty

· #17 · Oct 22, 2014

I should be more specific...it was a very long time ago that we fed the raccoons...I mean, when I was a kid, about 20-25 years ago. Also, we didn't hand feed them, just threw food out in the back yard like we did for all the outdoor animals. Also, we lived in the woods...not in a normal neighborhood. They were there whether we fed them or not. They lived in our yard. We were surrounded by every single animal you can think of living in this area. I am well aware that you can get a disease from animals. Heck, you can get a disease from humans. I don't suggest people go out side in their city neighborhood and have their kids handing the raccoons sandwiches by hand. As for the baby we cared for, we never considered him a pet nor did we keep him as one. He was nursed back to health, cared for then trained to be released in our woods...if we hadn't, he would have died. We took care of many animals this way, in a safe manner, and any animals in our care were never brought near other people nor were they taken for show and tell or such. I grew up in a family that actually knew how to care for and be safe around wild animals. I would never suggest another person try to do anything we did. I was just sharing my own funny raccoon story about how smart/mischievous they can be, and commenting on the fact that, yes, they can get into your decorations and such.

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kittyvibe

· #18 · Oct 22, 2014

witchykitty, I thought your story was cute and funny.

I dont think anyone talking about how dangerous they can be were aiming their comments to you, but just as a warning in general. At least, I didnt read the other posts that way.

I used to take care of exotic animals and know exactly what you mean by doing things the right way. A big part of it is understanding that they may be friendly and can get a routine down (for coming to you for food) but never domesticated. So to never let your guard down, etc.

Certain animals like anything can be the exception to the rule, like your little baby one, but you encouraged it to be on its own and eventually he did just that without incident. Some other people take complacency with animals too far and end up hurt though, so I think thats why some people are warning peeps. /hugz

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WitchyKitty

· #19 · Oct 22, 2014

Thanks, kittyvibe. I just didn't want everyone to think I was a careless idiot, lol. I felt I should explain a bit better. I get upset easily about stuff like that.
I am an animal lover and vegetarian, so caring for animals is what I do.

I have seen the destructive/bad sides of many wild and domesticated animals in my life...but I still love them. They are only doing what is instinctual...even if it's annoying, lol. Take the chipmunks living in my yard and foundation and digging up my gardens, for example...I want to strangle them all and I'm constantly scolding them, but I still adore them.

Now I have the urge to go outside and put pumpkin pails all over my back yard and watch, lol.

Reactions: 1

Ghost of Spookie

· #20 · Oct 22, 2014

WitchyKitty, checking back in on the thread, and had to post to say Kittyvibe was completely right on, at least from my perspective. My views may have been prompted by your experience and seeing Ostenator's face so close to that racoon in his photo (I nearly jumped at the thought of how close it was!!!). I've always been a more cautious one though and know of someone who had racoons invade their house. Just felt the need to express my concerns and really nothing personal meant in any way about it.

I'm also reminded right now of the commercial on TV where the lady, with poor vision and in need of glasses, calls her cat to come in to the house and praises it for doing so. Of course what we see is a racoon entering the house and then the plug for some type of vision care. That commercial cracks me up every time I see it. So cute and unassuming in their looks!

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